Mixed martial artists from Timaru’s Knight MMA have once again made their mark on the international stage.
Will Knight and Luca Shaw travelled to Bali last month to compete at the three-day World Kickboxing Association (WKA) Asia Pacific Open.
As part of the WKA Aotearoa New Zealand team — Knight fought in the age 15-17, 63.1kg-67kg division for both K-1 and Muay Thai winning a gold and silver medal respectively.
Shaw fought in the age 18-39, 76.1kg-79kg division for K-1, winning gold and then replicated the feat in the 18+, 70.1kg-77kg division for MMA.
Knight said his experience competing at the WKA World Championship in Scotland last year prepared him for another international competition.
‘‘Before Scotland all my fights had been in New Zealand, although I only had two fights in Scotland and one of them being someone from New Zealand, that experience helped me feel a lot more comfortable.
‘‘Having that prior experience of not knowing who you will be matched up against until competition day meant there were no nerves or anything.’’
He said he was pleased with his performances and the calibre of the opponents he got to face.
‘‘I had four fights, two in Muay Thai and two in K1.
‘‘I fought two Australians in Muay Thai,’’ he said.
‘‘In Scotland I had two fights, it was a good experience but going all that way and having one of the fights against a Kiwi was something I could have done here.
‘‘Whereas in Bali I was stoked to get multiple fights across different days and against international opponents.’’
He felt he fought a lot better this time around.
‘‘I’ve got a lot to work on still but I’ve definitely improved as a fighter.’’
The goal going forward was to continue staying active, he said.
‘‘Myself and Luca will be heading up to Hamilton next for the Supremacy fight card which should be fun and then it’s just continuing to train and continuing to improve.
‘‘I want to stay as active as I can.
‘‘I did that well last year with five fights and I’m already getting close to that now. With this card coming up I’ll have five this year and it’s only four months in.’’
Shaw said it was his first taste of international competition.
‘‘I found it quite easy, most of the boys over there were pretty cool and it quickly felt like an actual team.
‘‘The hardest thing was dealing with the heat but it was a great experience getting to meet people from around the country.’’
He said it was unfortunate that he only fought Kiwis.
‘‘I had three fights and they all ended up being on the final day.
‘‘The guys I fought though were from solid high-level gyms and it was still three fights, three wins and two golds so I’m pretty happy with that.
‘‘I definitely would have liked to test myself against an Australian or an Indonesian to see what that level’s like but I can’t complaint too much.’’
There were a lot of positive takeaways, he said.
‘‘There’s no watching film, getting ready and getting nervous about an opponent.
‘‘You just go in there ready to fight and I guess that kind of resulted in me having good results by not thinking about an opponent.
‘‘It was my first three finishes in a fight, so I think it taught me to stop overthinking and just fight.’’
He said it was his first MMA fight too as he had focused on kick boxing last year.
His next fight was MMA so he wanted to keep going down that path.
‘‘I enjoyed the freedom and the smaller gloves are fun, it keeps you honest.’’
Having ticked off competing internationally, Shaw said he still had plenty of other goals he wanted to achieve.
‘‘I want to get some South Island titles in both kick boxing and MMA, continue improving and I also want to start competing in jujitsu.
‘‘I really want to get back over to Bali as well, the training over there was awesome and I just loved the way of life, so I’d love to get straight back over there as soon as possible,
‘‘A big one is trying to get sponsorship. We have to pay our way to these competitions and we have an ISKA [International Sport Kickboxing Association] one in Brisbane coming up.’’
He said securing some local athlete sponsorships would be a big help.
